Degrees of Value: Making College Pay Off

For Too Many Americans, College Today Isn't Worth It

By

Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Updated Jan. 15, 2014 10:58 a.m. ET

In the field of higher education, reality is outrunning parody. A recent feature on the satire website the Onion proclaimed, "30-Year-Old Has Earned $11 More Than He Would Have Without College Education." Allowing for tuition, interest on student loans, and four years of foregone income while in school, the fictional student "Patrick Moorhouse" wasn't much better off. His years of stress and study, the article japed, "have been more or less a financial wash."